Esapekka Lappi holds a small 0.7s lead over Ott Tanak after a fierce battle with the Hyundai ended prematurely as the last two stages of the day were canceled.
Despite Lappi’s teammate being quickest out of the box in the first stage, it would later emerge that the Finn would be Toyota’s main challenger for the lead and take on Tanak.
This year’s Rally Italia Sardegna round got started on Thursday with a brand-new opener. The 3.23km Olbia – Cabu Abbas was first supposed to be used in 2020 but unfortunately the Covid-19 pandemic got in the way. Thierry Neuville didn’t let the lack of knowledge of the stage get in the way though as just like Portugal, he topped the evening timesheets.
The Belgian set a time of 2m 26.8s which meant he led the second-placed Takamoto Katsuta by 0.5s. Katsuta would lead the Toyota contingent as their drivers locked out second to fifth. Evans took third followed by championship leader, Rovanpera then Esapekka Lappi. Ott Tanak would round out the top 6.
Into Saturday it was Elfyn Evans that went straight to the top of the time sheets after stage two. The Toyota man would start strongly however it wasn’t going to last as after a compression on the next test would result in radiator damage. Evans would subsequently retire his car shortly afterwards.
With two loops of the Terranova and Monti di Alà e Buddusò tests in the morning, drivers would normally opt for set-up changes and harder tires to adapt to the exposed hard ground after the gravel was cleared earlier. The stages, however, would be driven twice before service, so the opportunity was not there.
That didn’t trouble Tänak, the Estonian would get into the lead after SS4 and would extend his advantage over Lappi due to the Finn suffering a left front puncture on SS5.
Pierre-Louis Loubet rounded out the top three, just 5.2sec behind Lappi. The Frenchman had a consistent morning and headed his M-Sport Ford team-mate Craig Breen despite overshooting a hairpin.
Two-time Italy winner Dani Sordo struggled with set-up on the first pass, but found the right settings to increase his pace on the second pass. He ended 4.5sec slower than Breen in fifth after winning the final test of the morning.
Once again Thierry Neuville would have a horrible opening to a Saturday. The Hyundai driver was frustrated to lose almost 2 minutes with a transmission issue on the final test. He had also struggled with hanging gravel so Neuville was left searching for an upturn in his luck.
Tanak would extend his Rally Italia lead with another stage win on the sixth test. Lappi would trail the Hyundai driver by 2.7s which meant that the overall lead would grow to 6.4s. Despite a stall and a near-miss with a bridge, Craig Breen would pip his French teammate into third but with a slender margin of 0.6s
On stage seven, Lappi would fight back against Tanak. The Finn finished 7.1s ahead to lead the standings by just 0.7s. Tanak reported however that he seemed to have had a transmission issue and that his car felt as though it only had three-wheel drive.
Loubet came back at his teammate to snatch third by 0.4s. The Ford duo were having a cracking scrap, but Dani Sordo also gained on the pair. He brought the gap down to a second against Loubet.
Unfortunately, however, this would be the last of the day’s action. SS8 was initially delayed before being canceled and due to the difficulties in moving the cars from regroup to SS9, that stage was canceled as well. The action gets underway early tomorrow with Toyota’s Lappi holding a slender margin over Tanak’s Hyundai.
